All posts tagged "Inner City Outings"

July 15, 2014

Asked why she feels it's important to expose young people to the natural environment and the great outdoors, Tucson elementary school teacher Cheryl Walling, above, responds with a John Muir quote from his 1912 book, The Yosemite:

"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul."

This quote appropriately describes the verve and enthusiasm that Walling brings to her position as an Inner City Outings leader in Tucson.

Walling has been a volunteer leader with Tucson ICO for eight years. During that time, she has taken students from across the Tucson Unified School District on outdoor adventures at least once a month -- from short forays into Tucson's nearby nature to Grand Canyon outings to multi-day wilderness backpacking trips.

Getting out into nature has always been a passion for Walling. Growing up in Illinois and Michigan, she regularly went hiking and camping with her family. "When I became a teacher I noticed that many of my students didn't get to go out in the wilderness," Walling says. Determined to expose her students to the natural environment, she connected with a teacher at her daughter's school, who directed her to the local ICO program.

For Walling, the program means more than just getting her students to connect with nature -- it's about forming a bond with the participants, and bringing that personal element back with her to the classroom. "The kids see me as teacher, but they also see me as something more," she says. "They open up to me on the trips and I learn about them. Then I use the knowledge gained on our trips and connect it to what we're learning about in class."

Walling goes to great effort to encourage young ICO participants to form a strong and lasting bond with nature. At the end of all the outings she leads, Walling sets aside ten minutes for quiet reflection. "I want the kids to really connect with the wilderness," she says. "Often they say this is one their favorite parts of the trip."

This was the case with a sixth-grader named Anthony, who participated in several of Walling's outings over the years. On his first several trips, the 11-year-old would suffer from panic attacks and constantly have to use his inhaler. "The entire group helped him overcome his fears and his dependence on the inhaler," Walling says.

By the time Anthony was in the eighth grade, he was hiking challenging peaks and extreme terrain and walking the Grand Canyon, all without his inhaler. And upon entering college, he won a scholarship for his writings about his experiences with ICO. "He now helps me as a volunteer leader on my trips," Walling says. "The kids love to hear about his experiences."

Stories like Anthony's motivate Walling to continually push for more funding for Tucson ICO, applying for grants to help fund trips within the school district so that she can lead more frequent outings and make them even more enriching for her students. "Although our program doesn't have a lot of money, we've been able to get grants from some amazing local businesses that have really helped with expenses this last year," she says with obvious pride.

"These trips really change the students and the way they relate to the outdoors," Walling says. Three years ago, Arizona threatened to close multiple state parks due to budget cuts. Incensed, Walling's students wrote letters to the governor, insisting that the parks stay open. "And they did!" she beams.

Walling and her fellow Tucson ICO volunteers constantly remind young participants in the program that it is their responsibility to maintain and care for the parks and wilderness in their community, but they take pains to impart this message in a way that the students enjoy.

Nothing makes Walling happier than to see a student who is truly inspired by the environment. "I love seeing their faces when they discover a new place and when they realized they have completed a goal," she says.

July 11, 2014

Please join us in our excitement over a new name for our beloved ICO program. As of July 1, we are no longer Inner City Outings. We are Sierra Club Inspiring Connections Outdoors.

The acronym ICO and the mission -- to provide opportunities for people (especially youth) with limited access to the outdoors to safely explore, enjoy and project the natural world -- remain the same. We have 55 ICO groups in cities and towns across America going outdoors with 14,000 participants each year. And that number grows every year thanks to our dedicated volunteers and the growing nationwide movement to (re)connect with nature.

So why change the name?

There's a lot of familiarity with ICO, our long-standing moniker and acronym, and for many people, "InnerCityOutings" runs together as one word and quickly encapsulates the pride we all have in the tremendous work this program has done.

However, to some people the words "Inner City" have negative connotations, and have been a barrier to deeper engagement on the part of many participants, volunteers, would-be volunteers, donors, and agency partners.

Additionally, the term "Inner City" does not fully represent the geographic areas our program serves, which include rural and suburban neighborhoods and, frankly, anywhere Sierra Club leaders want to go outdoors with people who may not otherwise have easy access to the outdoors. "Inner City" is a term of the past. And ultimately, these were sufficiently compelling reasons to change the name.

To quote one of our San Francisco Bay Area volunteers, "We are in the business of empowering others, encouraging others, connecting with others, and -- dare I say it -- inspiring others."

We are excited about this next step in the future of Sierra Club Inspiring Connections Outdoors. Last year we grew by 20 percent, and we are working hard to double the number of participants getting outdoors with the Sierra Club nationwide by 2020.

Inner City Outings has served the Sierra Club -- and all who participated in the program -- well. Now ICO moves onward and upward with a new name that better encapsulates the full spectrum of people ICO seeks to reach.

May 21, 2014

Joy Mayfield has been with the Nashville Inner City Outings program since its inception in 2007, and has watched the program cultivate an appreciation for the environment in the minds of the youth in her community.

"I had looked into starting an Inner City Outings (ICO) program here in Nashville in around 1998, but I couldn't find enough people at that time willing to volunteer to be leaders," the longtime Sierra Club volunteer leader recalls. "Then, to my delight, in 2007 two young ladies in the Sierra Club's Middle Tennessee Group decided to start an ICO program here, and knowing I was already a certified outings leader, asked if I would join them. They also knew I had customized some local outings specifically for families so children could be included."

Joy loves the outdoors, and enjoys exposing nature's intricacies to children who might not otherwise readily have the opportunity to experience the great outdoors. "Working with ICO, I get to be a kid again, exploring the wonders of the natural world. We adults take life so seriously. Sometimes we forget to play and have fun."

Above, Joy with good friend and Nashville ICO chair Craig Jervis. Below, young ICO participants gardening at a local historic site.

It is Joy's mission to share her love of the environment with the youth of Nashville. Sometimes it's not the easiest thing to do.

April 23, 2014

Debby Rudy's love affair with the environment began in the summer of 1996 when she attended a local meeting of the Pennsylvania Sierra Club. "I felt a need to be among more kindred spirits," she claims.

Debby, above at left, found those kindred spirits in two Sierra Club members who were opening up an Inner City Outings (ICO) program in Harrisburg. "It turned out to be one of those rare moments of fate, when you stumble upon something you had been looking for your whole life," she recalls. "They were looking for volunteer leaders to hike, camp, bike, bird watch, paddle, and be outdoors with like-minded people, while taking urban youth on new forays into the world of nature. I couldn't say 'Where do I sign up?' fast enough!"

She did more than just sign up. Debby started at ICO as a volunteer, but it wasn't long before she became a Certified Leader, then a Co-Chair, then Treasurer, then Chair and Treasurer. In 2002, she became the Regional Representative for the Mid-Atlantic Region, and from there served one term as National Vice Chair, then another term as National Chair of ICO.

ICO acquaints inner-city youth with the outdoors in an effort to cultivate an understanding and appreciation for the environment. To Debby, who has been with the program for 18 years, this is the most important aspect of her work. "That 'nature connection' is how every ICO leader influences their local program," she says.

"The most memorable trip I was ever part of was a Columbus Day three-day-weekend outing to Assateague Island National Park," she recalls. "Our participants were so excited. None of them had ever seen the ocean before, let alone been out of Pennsylvania. After a very long drive, we pulled up at the park rest stop to change into swim suits. The kids saw the ocean beyond the sand dunes and took off in their street clothes for the water. They were screaming and yelling for joy and ran right into the surf -- clothes, shoes and all.

"They were astounded, amazed, and joyously happy to see the ocean," Debby says. "Despite having to try and dry out all those street clothes overnight in the cool, damp sea air, I would have let them do it again in a heartbeat. That was a pure moment. Seeing something new, forgetting the tribulations of urban life and being carried away by the simple joy of being in the sand and in the waves. I look at some of the photos from that outing and it brings tears to my eyes -- happy, joyful tears."

March 25, 2014

On March 18, Dr. Benjamin Blonder, an ecologist at the University of Arizona and a volunteer leader with the Sierra Club's Inner City Outings (ICO) program in Tucson, was honored at the White House as a Champion of Change, along with 13 other environmental and conservation leaders.

Blonder is cofounder and Education Coordinator at the Sky School, a residential science school located on a campus in the heart of southern Arizona's Coronado National Forest that provides immersive, year-round environmental education programs to K-12 students.

Sky School, which started in 2012, had its genesis when Blonder was studying for his doctoral program in ecology and evolutionary biology, and in his personal experiences working as an environmental educator with AmeriCorps and as a middle-school science teacher at Miles Exploratory Learning Center, a public school in Tucson.

At Sky School, students work in small groups with a graduate student mentor, brainstorming ideas, learning how to do scientific research, and presenting their findings to peers, teachers, and other scientists at the end of the program.

Because of Blonder's efforts, each year hundreds of K-12 students, primarily from Title 1 schools, are able to conduct independent research while exploring the region's "sky island" ecology, biology, and geology. And since Sky School is located at the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter, they have access to the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory to study astronomy.

Below, Blonder (back row, fourth from right) with other adult leaders and youth participants on a recent Tucson ICO trip.

Blonder, who grew up in New Jersey twenty miles from Manhattan, says he didn't spend all that much time getting out into nature as a kid. "My experience was primarily sidewalks and strip malls and night skies lit up by airplanes instead of stars," he says. "I never went camping until I left for college. I was fortunate that I took one ecology class as an undergraduate student, just out of curiosity, and a whole new world opened up for me. I think everyone deserves the same life-changing experience I had."

The Planet caught up with Blonder the week after he won his Champion of Change award.

February 27, 2014

Baltimore public school teacher Brad Hunter, above at right, a volunteer leader for the Sierra Club's Inner City Outings program, says he found out about ICO totally by happenstance.

"I'd been overseas for some time and I came back to visit my parents," he recalls. "My mom is a Sierra Club member, and the chapter newsletter was sitting on the table. It had an ad about Baltimore ICO, so on a lark I went to the website, made a call, and went on a trip. After four or five trips I decided to get trained as a leader because helping youth have positive experiences outside was just, well... fun. I've now been on 70+ trips over the last six years."

With active programs in more than 50 U.S. cities, ICO provides outdoor experiences for kids who might not otherwise have easy access to nearby nature. Hunter says most of the kids he works with have had few if any opportunities to access the natural world. "That's what ICO is all about. The main thing I want to do is get kids comfortable in the outdoors. From that comfort they can then learn to appreciate nature, and a desire to protect the natural world often follows."

"I can talk to the kids all day about things like water-quality issues in Chesapeake Bay," he says, "but if I'm able to help them have a positive experience through fishing, sailing, hiking, or just exploring around the bay, then as they grow older they'll have a greater understanding and appreciation of what an amazing resource it is."

September 12, 2013

Like so many volunteers with the Sierra Club's Inner City Outings program, Desiree Farve, a five-year certified leader from Baltimore, serves with the purpose and motivation of reaching kids who would otherwise not get to experience the outdoors.

"Especially with inner city kids. I came to realize that working with people in the outdoors was really my passion," she says.

Desiree is one of many volunteers who run 50 Inner City Outings groups across the country. These groups lead more than 800 outings each year, serving about 14,000 young people. Many participating kids live in areas that struggle with crime and drugs. Often they visit places they didn't even know existed, and engage in activities they have never tried before.

"There was one boy who had never ridden a bike," says Farve. "The other kids went ahead and helped him learn. And now you can't get him off a bike. He just loves it -- and you should see the smile on his face as he's zooming by."

August 30, 2013

The penultimate trip this summer for me and Daniel can be summed up in two words: wolves rock. Still in awe, and it's been over a week since I was licked on the face by one.

Circa August 9, 2013, we set out for Colorado. After flying into Colorado Springs, we met up with a group of Boulder ICO (Inner City Outings) kids going to Mission: Wolf, a sanctuary in this gorgeous valley. Game plan: meet some wolves and help out the volunteers who work there.

The two youth in the segment, Prayash Sangraula, originally
from Nepal, and Asha Adam, from Sudan, shared their experience of seeing a side
of the country that most visitors don't get to enjoy. Watch it here.

"In Nepal there are forests," said Prayash in
the TV interview, "and they were kind of dangerous." After four years
of living in the U.S., "Andy dropped in and that's when we started going
hiking, and it's been pretty fun working with him."

"The kids did so well" on TV, Andy said afterward, "especially
considering that English isn't their first language. I was really excited for
them to get that experience."

July 25, 2013

An Inner City Outings scrapbook would look something like
this: pictures of young people smiling, playing, and admiring what the outdoors
has to offer. For ICO backpacking leaders Tim Kline and Linda De Young, these moments
are what make ICO so rewarding.

"Most students live in school and are so regimented. My trip
leading style is mostly to just get youth outside and let them play," says Tim. "It's been great seeing some of the more reserved students have an unabashed
good time just being wild, splashing around in the sand, playing soccer, and
yelling. I love it."